Spring (II)

Ok, so it's not all sunshine and clear skies. Sydney has been under siege.















Over the last few days Sydney has been hit by a depression (I think that's what the weather people call it). This has meant grey skies, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of rain, thunderstorms and huge ocean swells.

The weather turned bad last Wednesday. We had a storm throughout the night and I was woken up at about 6am on Thursday by the sound of a torrential downpour. I wondered how I could make it across town without getting too wet. The answer was to go to work in shorts and flip-flops and get changed there. It worked a treat, although I probably look ridiculous in the howling wind and rain. My umbrella, which was supposed to protect me to the wharf died within two minutes of leaving the flat. It was probably a good thing considering there was lightning in the air.
The ferry ride is always good fun when the swell is huge. As you cross the Heads (which is where harbour meets the ocean) the ferry's get knocked all over the place. During this part of the trip it, and when there is a big swell, it often feels like being on a rollercoaster. You get that nice 'stomach in the mouth' feeling as you drop into the trough of a big wave. I love it but lots of people don't. I find the odd sh rieksquite amusing.

Anyway, the ferry ride isn't good fun when it is cancelled. This happens occasionally, and on Thursday after they got all the commuters into the city the authorities decided to shut the service down for the day. Luckily they had begun to operate in time for rush-hour. Well, I say that but I got to Circular Quay for the 6.20pm ferry only to find out that it had been cancelled. Luckily the 7pm one ran and as we boarded we were all given a warning that it was going to be a rocky ride, which it was. H and I walked home along Manly sea front and I had never seen the water come up so high (in the four months I have been here anyway). It was like the beach had been swallowed by the ocean. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me then, and it was dark anyway.

I was hoping to get a surf in on Saturday morning (it would've been the perfect way to get rid of the leftovers from another excellent Friday night out in the city) but I thought better of it. Instead I went for a walk and took some pictures.











































Looking towards Shelly Beach and The Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve.







































































The photo's don't really do the waves the justice they deserve, but there is a surfer in each of the two pictures below which helps you see how big the waves were.



































































































H and I went for a walk on Saturday afternoon to the Aquatic Reserve. I took even more pictures (as always).







































































(Lots of) Rain.














From left to right; Manly Beach, Freshwater Beach and Curl Curl. Shelly Beach is in the foreground.









I finally began to get annoyed with the weather on Sunday when I woke up to find a leak in our flat. Water was slowly dripping from the light bulb in our front room. I was a bit miffed as to how water can get into a unit on the middle floor. The landlord knew what the problem was straight away when I called him. Apparently it will be getting in via the unit/balcony join above us (he mentioned something about shoddy workmanship and cowboys). The thing is, the bloke who lives above us is out of town (he's gone to London!). We've left it with our landlord to fight it out with the Body Corporate who manage the property. The latest update is that some guy will be out to fix in on Thursday. The water wasn't pouring through. It's more like a continuous dripping which gets more frequent as the rain intensifies. Our landlord tried to get the problem fixed 12 months ago when the problem last happened. At least it only rains like this once a year.....and when it does rain here, it bloody rains!

The rain continued to come down throughout Sunday night and into Monday morning. I decided to give the shorts and flip-flops a miss on the way to work and got a proper soaking. It's not very nice sitting in work with wet jeans on.

The weather improved a lot today. Well, it pretty much stopped raining which meant our leak has now stopped. I also saw the first bit of blue sky seen in these parts since last Wednesday.















Apparently it's going to get even better tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be like this again soon.